Harvest Moon Ritual

Quick note before I go ahead with my post:  Magaly over at Pagan Culture is hosting a blog party!  I'm so in.  It'll be the first one I've participated in, and I think I'm going to write a story for it.  Exciting!  Check it out!  (Button on sidebar)

And now back to your regularly scheduled blogging:

I did my harvest moon ritual last night instead of tonight.  I'm not sure why, but I did.  I thought about it today and managed to use my time zone as justification.  In my time zone, the moon became full at something like 2:26am today, so doing it last night makes perfect sense.  But of course, the intricacies of time and my unfailing ability to justify damn near anything after the fact are not what this post is about.  This post is about my altar.

Apparently I am quite shy about posting pictures of my altar, because I've been wavering back and forth on it all night.  I don't know why.  It's silly.  Maybe I'm scared somebody's going to be all "UR DOIN IT WRNG!!1!", but then I could just be all "Pfft mofo, YOU'RE doing it wrong!" because I wouldn't be able to bring myself to type in text speak, and that would mean I win by default.  Tangent stops here.

I bought an altar cloth today.  I've never had one, because I haven't been able to find one that appeals to me, even just a little bit.  Actually, the one I bought today is not an altar cloth at all, but rather a really wide scarf that I discovered by chance in Sears.  I've just folded it up to make it work for my purposes, and work it does.  I think I will continue to use scarves as seasonal altar cloths.  So without further ado:

Rich, autumny colours with a subtle pattern, and a thin line of silver separating them.  Bonus points for being 25% off.  I love it.  I absolutely adore the colours of fall; the oranges and reds, faded greens and bright, sunny yellows.  They're so warm and cozy, I swear the colours themselves help fend off the brisk chill of the air.  Autumn colours are also what look best on me, which means I feel my best when they're on me, so that likely has something to do with it, too.

And now my altar!  I decorated it with autumn stuff, which was fun.  My table is really small though, and it feels crowded.  But I'm the type of person that will fill up any space with as many trinkets as possible, so whatever. 

I finally found a pentacle tile last week, after looking for one for months.  Granted, I've seen a few pentacles in the local shops, but none even remotely resembled what I was looking for.  So this one - simple, carved from soapstone - is a perfect fit.  It has holes for incense sticks, but I don't think I'll ever use them.  Another thing I don't have is an athame.  I don't mind so much though, because I don't feel like I really need one.  If I've cast a circle (which I don't do all the time, either), I will use the bear claw to open it, but that's about it.  I'm happy with my claw.  I also don't use the wand I made, but it sits underneath the table anyway in case I feel like I should.

Aaand that's pretty much it.  Goodnight!